Election Commission sources said on Thursday that a record Rs 328 crore of inducements such as cash, liquor and narcotics have been seized from voters in Uttar Pradesh since the announcement of the assembly election schedule on January 8. The cumulative seizure of such illegal inducements in the five poll-polling states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab stood at Rs 1,039.50 crore, sources said, including drugs worth Rs 571.34 crore.
The seizure figure in Uttar Pradesh till Thursday stood at Rs 328.33 crore, which is 1.70 times more than the total seizure of Rs 193.29 crore in the entire 2017 assembly elections in the state. Like last time, this time also the assembly elections are being held in the state in seven phases. While polling is over in Punjab, Goa and Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur still have one phase left.
Sources said the commission is laying special emphasis on inducement-free elections and curbing undue money force, liquor and freebies. A total of 128 Expenditure Observers have been deployed in Uttar Pradesh for effective monitoring. Over 1,800 flying squads and 2,104 static surveillance teams were operated in Uttar Pradesh to check the movement of cash, liquor, narcotics and freebies.
Eight Air Intelligence Units of Income Tax Department have been set up in Uttar Pradesh. Voting for the sixth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections began on Thursday morning, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and several prominent faces among the 676 candidates contesting 57 seats in 10 districts.
Around 2.15 crore people are eligible to vote in this phase. So far, voting has been done on 292 out of 403 seats in the assembly. The last phase of polling for the remaining 54 seats will be held on March 7.
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